Monday, March 15, 2010

History, Game 6, 2009 Season

Onward in the quest to lend clarity to the sometimes historical, sometimes inside, always worthwhile TDFC game reports of last year. OK, it was out of boredom waiting for the 2010 season to start that this whole 'History' interlude manifested. Whatever. Go freshen up, get a drink, sit down. You love it.

This bears mentioning before it's forgotten: While the http address up top sends you to the original post, the poster for the game being reported on is always in the previous post, so you have to go back to check it out to see what the hell is being talked about if there isn't a side by side comparison happening. Refreshing the memory makes it all make so much more sense! This games prop-poster was pure homage* (see side note at end) to our home base of operations, the pubbiest of pubs, the place where fashion and function meet, Piper's Pub (http://www.piperspub.com/)!!! Drew is a good guy; to his family, customers, the hired help, visitors and regulars. His wish for a pub team coming after The Pub morphed over the years into what it was always destined to be: A public house that's a little bit family, a little bit friends. Always welcoming, generally bustling, but sometimes moments of solitude that are just as familiar. Honest and simple, yet layered with the complexities of the traditions of all. Character and the banter to back it up. You can have a building and a name, it will be just that. You need the people that are there to serve you and the people that come in, blurring the lines of customer/acquaintance/friend in a mutual, respectful atmosphere, to make it what it is!

Poster content. Reaaady... GO! More solid work from the soon to be legendary abfu Design team. Pipers are mirrored on either side of a beer engine pump clip designed for the Pub. Glooooorious rays emanating up and highlighting the badge of your Local Pub Heroes! In the middle of history in the making, is history already made. It comes in the form of a quote from a letter written by a Scottish socialist upon his release from jail for anti-war activity during WWI. His name was John MacLean.

Good standing with Mama Russia got him appointed Bolshevik consul in Scotland. Soon after he was on trial for sedition. His dry wit spilling over to the proceedings when asked if he objected to any of the jurors, replied "I object to the whole lot of them." His passion evident as he addressed that same jury before being sentenced in the pokey: "I wish no harm to any human being, but I, as one man, am going to exercise my freedom of speech. No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind.I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot!" That being said, artistic license is at work here and we would really like you to continue coming to the Pub and buying our gear. We're not so much the dripping in blood side of capitalism. Thank you.

Not actually related.

A snob.

The writing this time is attributed to TDFC18. He makes mention of proles, pure Orwellian slang for the proletariat, the workers... the us. It is fitting that this approach was taken from the beginning. We were up against a team angered by relegation, with a preconceived notion on how things were supposed to be. Above it all, it seemed. Above lil' ol' us fer sure. The same Orwellian approach is used later on. The Ministry of Education and "re-education". The idea of being "taught the correct way" in matters of cultural re-evaluation and counter-revolutionary attitudes is something that most arbitors of social engineering have dabbled in. We are no different in that regard.

The skinny on collective v. individualism, a la tongue in cheek, crossed with truth, crossed with a sort of resignation: "There follows a mention of 'the collective' and how said collective predetermines its fate. The notion here is that we as a team of the glorious people's creation are a collective structure. We disavow the decadent and ridiculous class hierarchy prevalent in so many organizations. That said, LONG LIVE THE CAPTAINS, THE DEAR LEADER, THE CHAIRMAN AND THE PUB BENEFACTOR. See how that works? As I was saying, the power of the people's collective is strong and the predetermination of our own fate, if even for educational purposes is sometimes necessary. Again, more Orwellian rewriting of history! It happend the WAY WE WANTED it to... NO MATTER THE OUTCOME." Preach it comrade!

Now there is the mention of the 'Pub Stasi'. This is derived from the East German secret police, who were horrible dicks and said to have been everywhere during the Soviet era. On your block, at your job, in your school, the apartment next door (again an idea Orwell hammered home)... Here a Stasi, there a Stasi, everywhere... you get the rest. The People's Team learned the opines of our foes through our eyes and ears on the other side of the pitch! Hence was born our secret police, the much cooler, Pub Stasi. Snitches, hold the stitches. Power to the Party!

A little reverent, a little indignant, this installment. I'll leave you with a chuckle and then give you something to think about til next time we get all Orwellian!

* (this is the side note at the end) Homage: ORIGINMiddle English : Old French, from medieval Latin hominaticum, from Latinhomo, homin- ‘man’ (the original use of the word denoted the ceremony by which a vassal declared himself to be his lord's “man”). Who knew?

And from the well of inspiration, 1984:

"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then?"